SL will cease to exist - MR

Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday (9), warned that Sri Lanka will cease to exist if the new draft Constitution is passed.

In a statement issued yesterday, he stated that Sri Lanka now is confronted with three deadly dangers.

First, the danger of the economy collapsing at any moment, the second is the entire governmental mechanism breaking down due to the 19th Amendment to the Constitution and the third danger is Sri Lanka ceasing to exist if the new draft Constitution is passed, Rajapaksa alleged.

He further affirmed that even though the President is now prohibited from calling a General Election to seek the people’s mandate, the 19th Amendment itself has placed the responsibility of forming a government with Parliamentarians and taking the country forward with the same President.

“The President continues to be Head of the Government and Head of Cabinet. The President will also be responsible for everything done by such a Government. The President now cannot call for elections to test public opinion and take a backseat if the people’s mandate goes against him,” he said.

After the 2018 Local Government Elections, the whole country knows that the UNP does not have the people’s mandate and that they have been avoiding holding elections for that very reason, he claimed.

In such circumstances, it will be impossible for the President to handover the running of the country to the UNP and take a backseat, he added.“Because of the irrational provisions of the 19th Amendment, there is a clear danger of a breakdown in the Governmental mechanism of the country,” he claimed.

Meanwhile, he further alleged that through the proposed new draft Constitution, the Government seeks to divide the country into nine semi-independent federal units.

“The powers wielded by the Central Government today, are to be devolved to the Provinces. Each province is to have a separate Police force,” he alleged.

Rajapaksa also claimed that provisions have been introduced to weaken the Central Parliament and the legal framework in such a manner as to make it impossible for the Central Government to respond adequately to an emergency in order to safeguard the peace and integrity of the country.

“This draft Constitution has been prepared by the same persons who drafted the completely confusing 19th Amendment.”

He said that the same parties that drafted this proposed new Constitution introduced a new electoral system for the Local Government bodies and Provincial Councils in 2017. Today, the very people who enthusiastically voted for that new electoral system say that no election in the future should be held according to that new system, he added.

“If the new Constitution drafted by the same people is passed, Sri Lanka as we know will cease to exist. We now hear that attempts are being made to buy MPs to get this new Constitution passed,” he claimed.